Rolling Discord

Two Roads Diverged in a Dungeon and I...

2

AUG/10

Racing down the stairs after the kobold the party suddenly came to a screeching halt. Norge, bringing up the rear suddenly skidded to a halt, almost as if he had run into an invisible barrier. He began to faintly fade out, becoming gradually more illusory. At the same time a shadow began to grow in the space within him, slowly solidifying. After a few moments only the faintest trace of Norge was visible, a sort of shadow occupying the place he had been standing a moment before. In his place John bon Jonne...the wizard sent to explore reports of piracy down river from Portage. John was not wholly formed, and retained a slight translucency about him, as if the shadow of Norge still present was the part of him missing.

There was some frantic shouting, which John responded to by indicating that he couldn’t hear anything, or speak. This was followed by frantic gesticulating as the party attempted to figure out what was going on. Peredu contemplated chopping John up into pieces since this was a sign of evil…until Ember reminded him that he was one of the people hired back in town. Confused, the party continued down the stairs, mysterious companion in tow, recovering startling quickly to the sudden disappearance of one of their companions.

At the base of the stairs they were faced with a T-intersection. To the right, marked by torches and splattered kobold blood a corridor stretched until it turned a corner. To the right, an unlit corridor marked by cobwebs and dust. Weighing the options of following their quarry into the well traveled section of the catacombs (but inhabited by those that weren’t the bandits they were looking for) and exploring the creepy unlit dark tunnel…the party of course chose the creepy unlit dark tunnel.

They traveled down the 5 foot wide corridor, Peredu taking the lead, the others clustered tightly behind him. Peredu suddenly froze as he felt a telltale click under his foot. Spears shot from the wall behind him, thrusting deeply into Avyx’s side. There was uproar and panic, as party members ran backwards, while Peredu stayed in place, terrified to lift his foot from the pressure plate.

With everyone retreated to a safe distance, Peredu lifted his foot. Nothing. They called Mairwen up front to peer down the darkened corridor. Nothing. The party once more clustered behind Peredu, closer if anything this time. Then clickwhamscream another row of spears shot out impaling Avyx and trapping her against the far side of the corridor. more cursing

Mairwen once again scouted out the rest of the corridor while Avyx bandaged herself up. The corridor soon turned a corner, ending in a small room. The party cautiously trod down the hall, until they safely reached the small room. It was filled with boxes and chairs, piled against a door. The door was covered with bits of steel armor, hammered, flattened, and nailed to the door to form a steel shell. Spears and other bits of timber were braced against the door as well. Whatever was in there, the kobolds had no intention of letting into their portion of the catacombs.

Avyx immediately suggested turning around, while Peredu suggested moving on in. To help bolster his claim he began to just move boxes away from the door. Mairwen, jumped in at this point and opened one of the loopholes in the door, clearly designed to jab spears through at whatever was on the other side. Peering through the door she saw shambling unsteady figures lurching in a large room. The dead walked.

Mairwen slammed the port shut, and ran to the other side of the room flatly refusing to step through the door. Zombies, she explained, were not part of the deal from the Reeve. Peredu, though, took this as a holy task, something that had to be done and he convinced the others (even as he continued to remove boxes and bracing from the door).

Gripping his sword, and saying a brief prayer to Bahamut, Peredu flung the door open and raced through…